Berkeley, CA. Here is an update from David, of team Berkeley:
It was a beautiful spring day perfectly made for evangelizing. We offered up our outing as a prayer for the men on this weekend’s Oakland Cursillo (a leadership training program). Our team gave out plenty of rosaries, along with the new rosary cards with the downloadable directions for praying it. Here are some interactions of note:
Two young men who live in Richmond came by to tell us they go to a Baptist church and that they were glad we were out there. They accepted rosaries and the cards.
I met with a young man named David who accepted a Rosary, and when I asked him if he was Catholic, he said he was Christian. I told him that the Catholics were the original Christians and he chuckled and agreed with me. Turns out he attends Mass with his girlfriend and her parents now and then who are very Catholic. Looks like somebody has already been working on him.
I met a second man named David who was very intense. He wore some type of prayer beads from some eastern religion and told me he makes prayer beads. He was extremely open to learning the Rosary and wanted to know the prayers and why a Rosary had 159 beads. I discussed with him the history of the prayer starting out has the 150 psalms. He was struck with the depth of each of the prayers. He then shared with me how his mother was an atheist who had shut out all her religious family members. He discussed his enthusiasm for exploring the many faith traditions through a local rabbi and an imam. I had to dig but I found my last “How to pray the Rosary” pamphlet which he accepted enthusiastically along with another Rosary.
Right as I was about to get ready to go, I met a man named Dino. He grew up Catholic and already knew how to pray the Rosary. Dino showed me a picture of his two little girls which he had lost to CPS after his wife’s recent death. He lives in a shelter and has a job he is starting on Tuesday. He was distraught about losing the girls. He said he just needed to get baptized again. I told him he has already been baptized and that he did not need to have it done again, but that he should go to confession, then Mass and to give his life to Christ when he receives communion. That way he would be in a good mental place to start his new job and get on the road to getting his kids back. Please pray for Dino.
Praised be Jesus Christ! We have over 200 teams engaged in this street apostolate. Will you join us?